Gordon J. Humphrey Quotes
Mere law cannot reform Congress.... We must amend the Constitution to limit terms. Imagine the intellectual honesty and political courage that would be brought to bear on national problems, when men and women entering Congress knew with certainty they could not build a career in that place by currying favor with special interest groups.
Gordon J. Humphrey, U. S. Senator (Republican, NH), Letter to The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 1989
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Hollings who was one of the senior experienced senators was offended by the degree to which the George W. Bush Administration and the Republican leadership had turned to lobbyists to draft legislation and amendments to pending legislation. Lobbyists often have specialized information that members of Congress do not have, so there has been in modern times communications between lobbyists and members of Congress and their staffs. However, during the Bush Presidency the practice reached an extreme where lobbyists would even write the legislative language and give it to the members in whom they had invested by giving them large campaign contributions and many perks. K Street is the fanciest street in Washington DC with some of the most expensive office space. A substantial proportion of the lobbyists have K Street offices, hence the metaphor.
Senator McCain, on the current lobbying scandal, in particular, and the state of the government’s relationship with lobbyists in general.
That Congress had passed less legislation than any other in modern history. Hyperpolarization and a strategy of the Republicans who held the House but not the Senate of the Presidency together with more Republican filibusters in the last 6 years than in all of American History together.
A century afterwards, the biggest change was that the price of the Senate seat had gone up and the Political Action Committees had joined the Party Treasuries as the recipients of the money In the early 21st century almost all the Senators were multi-millionaires.
Gordon John Humphrey is an American politician from New Hampshire who served two terms in the U.S. Senate as a Republican from 1979 to 1990, and twice ran for Governor of New Hampshire, though both bids were unsuccessful.
